Book One: Under the Hunters Moon

Gold amongst the shadows

The Land of Shadows, Dún Scáith.

When the fight first begin Artemis had thought it would be over quickly because what being could hope to stand up to one of the twelve Olympians outside the scattered titans or the dead giants, this notion was quickly corrected as she watches the other Goddess slip in and out of the first two arrows she had fired at her before knocking the last one away with a spin of her spear. With the kick, the Queen of the land of shadows delivered to the Moon Goddess would have split a mortal in two, but as Artemis blocked the kick with her bow and her body was sent flying through tables and into the wall on the other side of the hall, Artemis started to reconsider her last though.

The follow-up from Scáthach was almost as bad, she threw the replica spear at Artemis with enough force and power behind it to punch through the crystal wall Artemis was kicked into, kicking up a cloud of dust. forcing the Goddess of the hunt to dodge, the hem of her bomber jacket being torn by the air pressure from the spear throw alone. In the dust, Artemis rolled to a stop, not breathing or making a sound, while she couldn't see her opponent, she couldn't see her either.

"What's wrong Graeca? Don't tell me that love tap took you out already?" Called Scáthach as she summons another spear to her hands with a calm smile on her face.

Artemis grinds her teeth at the blatant disrespect and draws back her bowstring, being one of the twin archers she did not need any arrows or quiver to load her bow, the arrows fold themselves into existence when she draws her string, and with rapid speed, she fires off four arrows from the cloud of dust before dashing out. Artemis hears the tell tail clang of Scáthach deflecting two of them as the tables and wall shatter behind her as she dodges the last two. Which is a considerable feat seeing as her arrows flew at supersonic speeds comparable to a Barrett M82.

Artemis moving with the speed and grace of the hunt runs wide around her prey firing arrow after arrow at Scáthach, but the infuriating Goddess with spears laughs as she knocks each one from the air with spinning spears as she follows Artemis with her eyes, tracking her easy enough, before with a burst of speed charges Artemis once again before throwing one of the recreated spears, making Artemis leap over the spear as in crashes into the wall on the far end of the room, the wall collapsing as it strikes. If Artemis' arrows were like a round from a Barrett M82, Scáthach's spears were that of a Howitzer shell.

As Artemis leaps over the spear, Scáthach makes it to her, and begins her dance of slashes and stabs with the barbed spear of death, Artemis is forced to dodge and dance with her avoiding the weapon the best she could, her natural speed and grace making sure she's not struck with the spear. Knowing her bow is useless at the range, Artemis twists her form into that of a Tiger and strikes back at Scáthach forcing her back as she dodges the deadly claws of the predator, gaining distance, even one so slight, Artemis capitalizes on the advantage twisting her form once again into a hawk and slips past Scáthach's swing to clip her wings to get above before changing into a bear and trying to crash down onto her. But Scáthach quickly rolls from the slam before popping back up to spin on her heel to try and sink the tip of her weapon into the hide of the bear. Artemis shifts back to her human form before jumping back and firing an arrow at her prey and smiles as she sees it sink into the chest of Scáthach, shooting her backwards and slamming her down through the row of tables.

Arming her bow again, knowing a single arrow wouldn't put down another god, she watches Scáthach jump back to her feet and swings her spear just in time to deflect the incoming arrow, Scáthach laughs once again.

"Not bad Graeca, not bad at all." She says as she stands and pulls the arrow from her and tosses it away, "Looks I will have to take this a tad more seriously, huh?" The Goddess of the lance says with a bloody grin and before Artemis can even consider what Scáthach meant by that, her eyes go wide as Scáthach summons six lances around her that float in the air before Scáthach smiles and lunches them at Artemis two at a time, forcing the Goddess of the hunt to dodge and twist out of the oncoming slot, the impacts of the spears shake the castle to the core as they leave craters in the ground and shatter the walls and in the middle of dodging the lances shot at her like shells, Scáthach appears admits The Barrage Before the last two spears even fire with an upwards swing with her personal weapon catching Artemis in the side and flings her skyward with a laugh.